Sunday, 29 January 2012

iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad

All three devices run iOS 5 and all three devices support wireless keyboards via Bluetooth or the Apple keyboard dock accessory, although naturally, with the physically larger display, the iPad is better suited for composing full documents (not to mention spreadsheets and presentations). It also is worth mentioning that a version of iWork -- Pages, Numbers, and Keynote -- is exclusively available for the iPad line.

The iPhone 4S, however, is the only device of the three that supports "Siri," Apple's "intelligent assistant" software program that endeavors to parse naturally spoken questions and provide voice answers using the web as its source and perform basic software tasks as well (like adding an appointment to a calendar or preparing and sending a text message).

All three devices have two cameras. The front-mounted cameras on all three are of similar quality -- each take VGA quality photos and video up to 30 FPS -- and are designed to be used for video conferencing in conjunction with Apple's provided "FaceTime" software over a Wi-Fi network.

The rear-mounted cameras, however, are of differing quality. The iPhone 4S has a rear camera capable of shooting 8 megapixel stills and 1080p 30 FPS video whereas the iPod touch 4.5 has a camera that is roughly a paltry 0.7 megapixels (960x720 stills) without a flash or autofocus support. For the iPad 2, Apple does not even bother to specify megapixels for its low-quality back camera, but it is of similar capability to the iPod touch 4th Gen camera.

All three have accelerometers that allow each to "know" whether it is being held in portrait or landscape mode and switch automatically, an ambient light sensor to adjust screen brightness, and a three-axis gyroscope that is particular useful for 3D gaming. All also have Wi-Fi -- 802.11b/g and the 2.4 GHz frequency of 802.11n for the iPhone 4S and iPod touch and full 802.11b/g/n for the iPad 2.

Otherwise, features are quite different between the three devices. The iPhone 4S has "phone" capability, mobile phone networking (3G/EDGE), GPS-A support, a digital compass, and voice control functionality. The iPod touch has voice control but lacks the remaining features (phone, 3G, GPS-A, and the digital compass). iPad models do not have mobile phone voice capability or voice control, but do include a digital compass. The higher-end iPad 2 models -- the iPad 2 (Wi-Fi/GSM/A-GPS) andiPad 2 (Wi-Fi/CDMA/A-GPS) -- have 3G networking and A-GPS as well.

The iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are powered by a dual core Apple A5 processor, although the iPad 2 is faster, whereas the iPod touch 4.5 is powered by a slower, single core Apple A4 processor. Storage capacities also are different -- 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB for the iPhone 4S, 8 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB for the iPod touch 4th Gen, and 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB for the iPad 2.